S6E6: Get On The Goodfoot! (Special Guest: Felipe Gonzalez)

ON THE SHOW TONIGHT

• The Sockers are off and running! We’ll recap a dynamic debut for the home team in Sunday’s 11-6 win over Tacoma, plus revisit the emotions of Brian Farber’s farewell
• Our special guest tonight is a man who picked up where he left off last year, putting up a multi-point effort in his first match: Felipe Gonzalez will join us at 5:30
• Is Monterrey that good, or is Dallas that bad? We’ll look back at some wild results from the weekend in MASL News, plus…
• A new signing in Empire is designed to shake up the league, but will a former Liga MX star bring the juice to the IE? Tony and I share our thoughts coming up, on the show of record in the MASL…

Episode Transcript

(00:25):
The Grand Old Arena for decades.This has been our own, a place
where magic has happened. This iswhere the soccer's legend is born. Ten
championships in the eighties and nineties,the greatest indoor team every lover. I'm

(00:45):
proud we've continued the tradition. I'vewon six championships in my career. But
this is the last run on themidway. One more chance to make memories
at the Grand Old Arena. Well, then we'll sort to end it.

(01:07):
Come stays our sort up, saysour snu god aeah, stay as not
l It's blocked by Palmer and restarted, and it's gold. Let's gold and
gold and gooding away and we areleaving without another cup. Hello once again,

(02:23):
everybody, Welcome back to Soccers overTime, your weekly look inside the
San Diego Soccers and the Major ArenaSoccer League, coming to you live on
Twitch alongside Tony Sanchez, Creig Elstonwith you. Oh what a great Tuesday
night to be together, my friend. We've got a Justice Apartment hyph video

(02:44):
to get us started. Oh mygosh, I'm like, I'm all a
tingle after watching that. I wasabsolutely phenomenal for that live in person with
real fear, real people. Ican't wait for the rest of the season.
I want more already, Greg,Well, you'll get at least a
little more here Tonight you will getthis episode of Soccer's Overtime Season six,

(03:07):
Episode six. We are out onthe good foot with another win to start
the season. On the show tonight, soccers are off and running. We'll
recap a dynamic debut for the hometeam, Sunday's eleven six win over to
come up. Plus we'll revisit theemotions of Brian Farber's professional farewell. Our
special guest tonight, a man whopicked up right where he left off last

(03:30):
year, putting up a multipoint effortin his very first match. Felipe Gonzales
is our special guest. He'll joinus live at the bottom of the hour
of five thirty. Is Monterey thatgood? Is Dallas that bad? You're
gonna look back at some crazy resultsfrom the weekend in MASL news, Plus
a new signing in Empire. Thisis designed to shake up the league,

(03:53):
but will a former lega Emme EchiStarr bring the juice to the Inland Empire.
Tony and I will sit there arethoughts. It's all coming up on
the show of record in the MASLSoccers Overtime. We thank everybody who is
joining us live on Twitch, Twitch, dot tv, slash. San Diego
Soccer is our channel. If youhaven't before, if you're here for the

(04:14):
first time, if you're checking infor the first time this season, make
sure you click that follow button.You'll be alerted every time we go live.
If you're watching the next Day onYouTube, please click like and subscribe.
Make sure that you're up to dateon all the latest San Diego Soccers
content. And for those of youwho are the podcast listeners my Next Day
Audio buddies, welcome to you.And if you could give us that five

(04:38):
star review on Apple podcast, thatkind written review, it only helps the
show, It only makes things better. All right, Tony, here it
is. You've had five episodes ofSoccers Overtime, but this is the first
time we've kind of had like areal show, a game. The recap
segment, like everything is falling intoplace now. It feels good. There's

(05:00):
high life packages, there's hype packages. I mean, it's really we're in
the swing of things now, andman, I really love just being able
to throw myself out a team andreally support it, even if it's from
the inside where it's one hundred percentlike, yes, I need these guys
to succeeed and I want to seethem succeed. Where else it's like I
got to be partial, but no, here, I am completely to the

(05:25):
wall. With Sandegl Sockers, You'restuck in and we appreciate that absolutely.
Well, let's start with what ended, meaning the career of Brian Farber.
Farbes, who has played here sincetwenty ten, has played professionally since two
thousand and six. Even before that, he says, he said twenty different

(05:46):
years putting on a pro uniform,whether it's outdoors or indoors. He announced,
of course last season that it wouldbe his last full season, and
then without a farewell game last year, this game one of twenty twenty three,
twenty four would be his farewell match. Of course, we at Soccer's

(06:06):
weren't going to let him go withoutgiving him the fondest of farewells, and
I thought, Tony, maybe wecould start here tonight for everyone who wasn't
at the match on Sunday, toplay the tribute video that Justice Partman made
for Farms got it playing with theSan Diego Soccers for the first time tonight

(06:31):
and a goal and two assists inyour debut. Tell me all about it.
This group of guys is awesome.They took me in right away,
and you know, they made mefeel home and that's what made me play
with a little bit of confidence tonight. And we got to win and that's
important. So good for me andgreat for the team. And that's good

(06:53):
to be here. Still, I'sdown in front of bad get away there
by day. He's a funny sakeball kick fall was at a rim,
this ball bouncing father Farmers got outperfect head aloud, catch away back to

(07:15):
good ear as a shoe shot andcolts up gets a goal. It's a
goal. San Diego wins. Itcounts the free kid. It's Reveren just
putting it to the end, tothe crease. Thank you'll t a father
prist Laus Christ jas Christ Claus jobsstill two time, two seconds holievable for

(07:40):
if you're the man. Wow,Nandy did a good job. I get
I get caught on that every singletime. What a great job. It

(08:03):
was really cool. I hope forjustice to see the emotions coming out of
Brian and his wife, Christy andtheir kids watching that video down on the
floor. He's meant so much tothe franchise. He's meant so much to
every player who has played here,to the coaching staff, to the ownership,
to everybody in the front office.Like Brian is just he's that guy.

(08:26):
He's that person who's all in everyyear. He's that person who brings
the positivity, the smiles, theenergy, that drive to win. We're
the best, We're the champions,you know. And that video had some
of his great moments. That momentin Las Vegas. I'll never forget the
header with two point two seconds left. What's had a context for that for

(08:50):
someone who may not know is thatwas the forty fifth straight win in the
record forty eight game winning streak,and it was the team that had sworn
there gonna beat us. And itwas a great match that was back and
forth, with Vegas ahead multiple timesin five to five, all the way
down to the end of the fourthquarter, Orleans Arena, seven thousand people

(09:13):
rocking, and Farber comes up withthat play to push the streak I think
to forty six with that win.So just incredible stuff, beautiful stuff,
justice, you know, hats offas a it's a stocking cap, so
maybe not hats off, but yeah, sure, there we go. Hat's

(09:35):
well, now I got to putit back on to make sure it's lined
upright. Yeah. A monumental player. You can really see it through,
not just the fans of the soccerthat his teammates and and in general,
just the opponents at the end ofthe match, just the respect that was
given to Farber and what he's meantnot just for the San Diego but for
the entire league. And you know, he spoke about it too, and
he hopes that the league is ina better place, and he knows the

(09:56):
league's in a much better place,let alone the soccer. So I mean,
a fundamental player here for San Diego, and I mean all stories come
to an end, and I thinkthat, you know, just in that
video package alone, it's just ataste of what this team truly means and
what these players have really represented herein San Diego. I just wish someone

(10:20):
had thought to give him the whipcream pie on Sunday so it could be
a perfect bookend to get whip creampied after his first game and after his
last game as a soccer but ohwell, they probably did something in the
locker room. Yeah, I canonly imagine. It probably wasn't a whip
cream pie. But it's all good. So you know, big upste Farber,

(10:43):
and you know, obviously the boyswere trying to get him a goal
late in the match, and JuiceCox is like, grinch, I ain't
doing it, but it's all good. A classy way for Farbes to head
out with that. Let's get tothe match recap, because the soccers had
a match to play. After theemotions were done, after the heart rates

(11:07):
of the Farbard family and all ofhis friends and fans went down a little
bit, it was time to playthe match. The soccers, the Tacoma
Stars. Let's roll the highlights courtesyof our man Eddie Trujillo. And what
a way to get things started here, Tony first shift for Gabriel Costa minute
forty five into the match, Alittle sidewall series of connections between himself and

(11:30):
Craig Chiles. Craig gets the ballback here from Gabriel and just lay it
off one touch inside of the leftoutside of the left foot to Costa.
I thought this was so important interms of getting a guy in early unlocking
that account right away, absolutely,and it was really interesting to see just
how they played in such a smallspace. Sometimes you forget that the game

(11:52):
is a three dimensional game, andthe way that they're played off the walls
and on the ground is just sublime. And really like that was a fantastic
intro for Gabriel post that to beable to just cement himself and say,
hey, hey guys, here Iam like, this is this is who
I am, and you know there'smuch more to come from myself. There's
Felipe Gonzales with his goal and whata great goal it was and kind of

(12:15):
a classic Filipe goal. It's hustle, it's technique because right here leaping left
footed send in of the rebound isquite a skillful play, but it's also
really indicative of hustle as well.Here we see once again following his own
shot after the block by Caceras andfor Felipe two to one, beautifully done.

(12:39):
This is a guy who just bringsthis type of energy, that quick
but not hurrying kind of energy tothe soccers every time. Yeah, no,
very good follow through on that greattechnique by Gonzales, speaking of a
beautiful shot Chris Tothe with his safeof the match, denying Cristian Gutierrez his
first of the year. Now here'ssomething that's soccer fans want to see a

(13:01):
lot of this year. Tony adouble team and Tavoyd just bursts out of
it on the north wall, getsthat right foot ready and laces one inside
the right post pass toe his firstof two on the night, gets a
quick dance going with Drew Ruggles.But Morgan thirty nine goals down to twenty
four, had such a hard timescoring at home last season, so I

(13:22):
thought this was big because honestly,I thought him not scoring in the first
game last year kind of put himin a little bit of a slump of
really trying to find a goal afterthat, and it kind of led to
a second goal, third goal.So having to voice score right there,
I think is big time good newsfor soccers fans. Yeah. Absolutely,
that's vintage, vintage, vintage TavoyMorgan, something that I'm glad to see

(13:45):
him do at home. As youmentioned, now, Soccer's made some mistakes
in this match. It was firstmatch. It's not to be unexpected,
certainly, it's to be expected thatyou're going to make some mistakes, but
pretty much Tick took three two goalleads and each time whittled one away with
some sort of defensive mistake. Partowith the wrong angle you just saw there

(14:09):
for three to two. But thenCosta comes back, and this is the
type of play that should make theMASL just scared to death because Coast is
controlling the ball. He's got adefender on him, but his eyes are
up, Tony, his eyes areup all the time. He's waiting to
see Chiles get to a space.And then he literally puts a perfect pass,
one bounce, never gets above ankleheight, and it skips right to

(14:31):
the foot of Chiles for the goal. These are the types of things Coasta
does. He makes goals easy.Now, of course, Soccers took a
two goal leads, so a badpass back, a mistake, a Juice
Cox run out. Really nothing thatParto could do on that one, because
right there when Charlie went for thetackle and missed, no way he was
catching Juice Cocks. Yeah no.And Tacoma really took it to the San

(14:54):
Diego. You know, they dominatedthat third quarter for a bit after a
difficult game here, and you know, you see some good fantastic play that
some help that Nick Perera is gettingand that's going to be dangerous if that
continues. Yeah, Corey Keats wholiterally annually scores at Pachonga Arena, he
gets one at least one match peryear. Down here at pachog Arena,

(15:16):
he gets a goal. You know, soccers then critical playing and this is
the type of play that to memakes indoor soccers so exciting. Tony.
We had so many outdoor supporters thereon Sunday night. Here in one play
is a dispossession plus a pass allat once and using a wall, sees
a loose ball to Ascoto, swatsit off the wall with the outside of

(15:37):
his foot, bounces it to Chiles. Chiles gets the goal. And then
this was a period of about fiveoutstanding minutes for Sean Callahan. He had
a couple of great defensive plays.He had a play that started the pressure
here and then that's awesome, hardwork rewarded as the ball comes to him
and he's able to slot his firstgoal. Yeah. Absolutely, he was
getting mattin haddle for a little bit, but really he was a rock for

(16:00):
those couple of minutes that the SandegalSoakers really needed. To get passed,
and then things just get cheeky.This this Iscoto goal, the ball's not
in the net and he's still alreadyblowing kisses to his wife and kids in
the crowd. Absolutely unbelievable, Andof course Gabriel Costa finishes things off at

(16:22):
the end with the empty netter foreleven to six. We talked about it
on the broadcast, Tony, howChris Toath does his stats no favors by
being his team sixth attacker. Idon't know how many times, whether it's
against US or other teams, I'veseen that type of situation where at the
end of the game the ball goesin the net. That's kind of normal.

(16:45):
The different thing is it goes againstTooth's stats because he stays on as
if he was in net, sohe's credited for all eleven goals allowed.
He's off to a pretty rough startfor the goals against title this year and
the safe percentage title for that matter. And Chris doesn't care about the stats.
He wants to win. But nonetheless, it's like just something interesting to

(17:07):
note. I thought we saw atruly dynamic offense on Sunday, Tony,
and I wasn't necessarily expecting that matchone. Given they've only had a couple
weeks of training, the match fitnessisn't all the way there yet. You've
got new players like Costa and Rugglesthat you're wondering how are they going to
integrate into the club. So tosee so many good signs. Scoto multipoints,

(17:33):
Charlie multipoints, cost A multi points, multiple goals for Childs, multiple
goals for Morgan. The two forwardsget five goals that are trying to score.
I just thought all the way acrossthe board offensively, this was a
game that was a delight for thesoccers and a nightmare for their opponents.
And it creates a a doesn't createan overreliance on one player or two players

(17:56):
that really carry that load. Right, say Leo, right, Usually we'd
expect him to have a better gamehere and there. It's the first game,
but whatnot? But even if hedoesn't, now you have Gabriel Golstak
creating something out of nothing. Again, that pass that you talked about was
absolutely sublime. The difficulty in beingable to do that and placing that perfectly
weighted ball for Childs to knock inbetween all of the Tacoma Stars players,

(18:21):
all of them were there, andjust the way that the soccers were able
to really move and transition in offense, as you're mentioning, was really impressed
him. The different variation of looksthat they have is is scary for when
they actually get that chemistry down.Yeah. The other thing I thought was
huge and we'll probably talk with Felipeabout this as well, but one of

(18:42):
the guys we mentioned in the secondhalf of the broadcast Brandon Escoto, because
Brandon has a habit of kind ofyo yoing with his output, not to
say his effort or his input,so to speak, but with his output
year by year, and you'll seeget forty five points and then all the
way down to the high twenties inpoints, and then up to fifties in

(19:04):
points, and then down to theteams in points. So I thought we
saw really good Brandon Escoto on Sundaynight, And in particular, I keep
an eye on his decision making,not trying to dribble the last player in
the back, not always trying todribble his way out of trouble, being
smart with the ball, just movingit quickly, having that sharp decision making

(19:27):
all of that was present. Brandongot two assists along with that beautiful goal.
And if Brandon is hunting assists withCosta, with Leo, with Charlie,
you're never not going to have twoplaymakers on the floor. It's an
absolute garden of riches for guys likeChilds and tavoid that they're trying to finish.

(19:49):
Yeah, the team aspect right nowreally seems promising, and especially if
you have Escoto, you know,again not necessarily being that focused person where
he needs to make something happen.He needs to be that person to move
the offense and be the the catalystof creation. But again, now he
has those real he can rely notjust on the midfield, he can throw
it all the way back and likeas I mentioned, ruggles back there,

(20:11):
he can go ahead and start toplay with that left foot of his.
And it's just such a dynamic startto the season where if it seems incredibly
promising, helpfully everybody's healthy. Butagain, at the end of the day,
this is gonna be a tough decisionfor the coaching staff to say,
all right, this is who needsto be on on the pit, on
the on the pitch right now,Who's gonna go ahead and go on the

(20:32):
field and on certain situations because youcan't put all of them on there,
so it's gonna be. It's adifficult situation to be and to be complaint
and honest, it certainly is.And I see a question uh from Chemo
B one sixty six in the chantany injury news on Mitchell cardonist. Mitchell
took his first shift and uh grabbedthe back of his leg kind of casually.

(20:55):
If you weren't paying attention, youdidn't see it. There was no
on field treatment. He just quietlywent to the bench and that was it.
And it is what we thought itwas. Man, it's a hamstring.
It's not major, you know,it's not like months. But certainly
I'd say he's one hundred percent outthis weekend. I'd say he's ninety percent

(21:19):
out next weekend, which is twomatches, and the odds of him playing
in twenty twenty three again are probablypretty dicey, you know, Like I'd
say Saturday the thirtieth would probably bethe earliest that you could imagine to see
Mitchell back on that type of injury, because you know, on a hamstring,
as you know, you can getit to a spot where it's almost

(21:41):
okay, where it feels pretty good, and then you make that one aggressive
push and the next thing you know, you're you're done. You know you're
completely done. So and you're outfor eight weeks, you're out for ten
weeks. So the soccer is goingto avoid that. They've got Paul Savage,
the best in the business. Youknow, he's got his hand on
Mitchell already, but I'm pretty surehe'll be out for the near term.

(22:07):
Now, one other thing I learnedtoday being back at work Tony. I
knew Juan Gonzales was unavailable for selectionon last weekend. He had had a
very similar kind of soft tissue thingearly in training camp. He's been kind
of serving as a ref out attraining, so I knew he wasn't going
to play. But also Pee Weehad a little bit of a tweak during
practice practice last week. So whilehe wasn't going to make the lineup last

(22:32):
night anyway, because of the Farbersituation, it wasn't that it's oh,
well, just pop Pee Wee in, it's well, maybe pop Pee weee
in for cardinist. We'll have tosee how this week goes. But given
that those would be the next twonames on the depth chart at defense.

(22:52):
I'd say, Tony, there's atleast a decent chance that number ninety nine,
Maxwell Rodriguez, the MASL con firstround pick who was signed to a
contract on Friday, has a shotto make his debut up in Tacoma this
weekend. Yeah. I saw alot of comments actually on the twitch during
the broadcast asking for Maxwell, SoI think this is going to prime opportunity

(23:15):
gets early in the season to seeexactly what he's going to be able to
bring to the table, especially nowwith these injuries, and we saw Mitchellkatt
of the NASA's absence and the waythat defense was discombobulated there for a quick
second, and to be honest,the offensive talent pushed the soccers through,
where in defense you can be alittle bit more more lax and not be

(23:38):
so focused on making sure that those, you know, errors are patched up.
Hopefully with training that's going to beaddressed and with the players that are
available, some duties are going togo ahead and be distributed and delegated on
the defensive end, So it's goingto be it's gonna be interesting to see
how the soccers move forward. Butagain it's one of those sports that sometimes
if you have the offense, thatmight not be necessarily such a big area

(24:00):
of focus if you're going to bebanging in goals left and right, not
saying that we want to go aheadand concede that many. But again that's
sets the first situation where it mightnot be the worst case scenario exactly.
I mean, the soccers have somerope to play with, is the way
I put it. Eddie makes agreat point though in the comment, I
mean, listen, this is nota young team. You know, there's

(24:22):
a couple of young players. Tavoyas a younger player on the team.
You know, Brandon is still onthe quote unquote right side of thirty.
But you know a lot of guysjust got signed to five year extensions that
are thirty four, thirty five,thirty two. You know, a three
year extension for a thirty nine yearold. And it's absolutely right. Health
is always going to be a variableover the course of the season. You

(24:48):
know, sometimes that variable is goingto work very much in your favor,
sometimes it's going to work very muchagainst you. And with No. M
two, this is something we've talkedabout you know, for the past couple
of weeks, so you know,some nervousness, I guess right. You
know, for this you always haveat least a little bit of trepidation,

(25:11):
But injuries are a part of everysingle season. Where they're going to land
landing on thirty one surprising. Cardinessis in such great fitness. He's in
such great shape. You know,here's another thing potentially Phil Savaggio, Rene
Ortiz et cetera could do. DrewRuggles ran in the off ball defensive pairing,
which was originally set up with Certa, Felipe and himself. Then when

(25:34):
Cardinis got hurt, Surda switched tothe on ball defending duo and it was
Pino and Certa. If Ruggles feelsone hundred percent this week, and I'll
I know also last week he wasn'tone hundred. He wasn't one hundred.
He wasn't seventy, but he wasn'tone hundred, And that's why they were
originally planning for him to run inthrees on the off ball pair. If

(25:57):
he's up, you could push Rugglesinto the on ball pair because he's got
the size, he's got the skill. He could be an on ball defender
of a guy like Pereira, aswe saw with Surta a few times.
I mean, it gets pretty funny. Perrero is undeniable at times. There's

(26:18):
just nothing anybody on God's Green Earthcan do at times. And we saw
that first goal where he, youknow, just did what he wanted to
and and that's again, it's alot of the first game situations where some
players were put in the position thatthey weren't prepped for. And this is
part of the preparation for each game. There's there's a factor where you want
to make sure that you have allyour bases covered, you know what situations

(26:40):
you're going to be in. Andif you're practicing now with in mind that
you're not gonna have God on theus, you're not going to have a
couple of players here and they're atthere one hundred percent, then you can
focus on that. And again,I think the depth right now isn't to
die or to say, oh myGod, let's we're gonna be, you
know, conceding so many goals.I don't think that's a situation because guess
what, at the end of theday, you still got bored part on

(27:00):
the back it's true last thing beforewe welcome in Filipe. You know,
as I build through media guide stuff, press notes stuff, preview stuff,
you're always keeping your eye out forthe statistical milestones that are on the way.
And a couple of years ago,the m ASL just made the biggest
deal about the race to four hundredpoints between Frank Tyu and Leo Gibson.

(27:22):
And now there's four players in MASLhistory with four hundred points because Ian Bennett,
Nick Pereira Nick at four h sixhave joined the group. Craig Chiles
came into the season with three pointninety two in the MAASL. He came
into the season with six seventy onefor his career, counting of course all

(27:44):
the PASL, MVPs and awards.So with his hat trick plus assist on
Sunday, Craig is now four pointsfrom four hundred, which is the current
big threshold in the MAASL, thehighest three shold in the MASL. So
that means he's either going to takeit on the road on Saturday in Tacoma

(28:06):
or he's gonna do it the followingSaturday in Dallas. It's almost undoubted that
we'll be celebrating his four hundredth MSLpoint on the soccer's next home match in
the seventeenth, because, just givenwhat we saw with both Tacoma's defense and
what happened with Dallas's defense this pastweekend, conceding a double deuce without a

(28:30):
triple e to the Monterey Flash shouldbe some high scoring games for the soccers
coming up in their next couple matches. Tony is in that pensive I am
frozen moment, and I kind ofremember this might have happened last time that

(28:51):
we had a guest lining up aswell. So we're gonna get back Tony
very shortly, and we're gonna getback our guest as well, Felly Bigenzalez,
who was about to jump in.I see Susan in the chat saying
did Dallas have a defense? I'vegot to watch that game. I kind
of don't want to watch the game. Susan, like, at first,
it's almost a morbid curiosity, likea train rack. How could this have

(29:12):
happened? But I've been at gameswhere like eighteen nineteen twenty goals get poured
in, and to be honest,it's usually not as fun as you'd think
you know it's it gets a littlebit kind of sad at some point when
you're popping in number eighteen and numbernineteen and number twenty and you're still celebrating

(29:34):
along the way and you're still drivingfor it. And by the way,
the soccers have I remember a timeduring the streak that they scored eighteen goals.
It's it's rare, and given PhilSilvaggio's position within the league, it's
very rare that you'll see the soccerstry to rub it in so to speak

(29:59):
to an opponent or run a scoreup. Usually when the soccers get up
big, you see what you sawon Sunday. You'll see a backup goalkeeper
in. You'll see the team leantoward possession, etcetera. Welcome back,
Tony. Yeah, you're with aradio professional. I can vamp with the
best of them. And honestly,like in the broadcast, it's like being
I told you, it's like beingan ex to Han Solo on the Millennium

(30:22):
Falcon. I'm just he's just chewingaround sometimes. But I do believe for
Felipe on just making sure audio isgood to go. All right, Well,
then let's welcome in on in ourmidfielder, our veteran extraordinaire, a
man who had his soccer's career highfor points last season, and now he
jumps out with a goal, oneand assist just like that. So felipe

(30:47):
A Gonzalez off to an amazing startin Felipe A Gonzalez our guest once again
on Soccer's Overtime. Welcome back tomy friend, Hey Craig, how are
you doing, Hey Tony? Thankyou guys for having me here tonight.
Man, of course it is ourpleasure. Thanks for making the time for
all the soccers fans that are watchingall around the country, all around the
world. I'll start things off thelapage, just very simply, your thoughts

(31:11):
on Sunday's victory five goal win overTacoma. Some up some downs along the
way, But now that you're acouple of days away from it, how
does it sit with you? Uh? You know what, I'm glad we
won. Might have been the bestsoccer that we can play, or the
neatest or the prettiest, you know, but at the end of the day,

(31:33):
what's more important is to get theresult, you know. I think
it's found to happen to where you'reup for so many months and then you
come back and the first game.I feel like the first game is always
is always gonna happen that way.You know. You know, your touch
isn't gonna be on, your passesaren't gonna be as crisp, your defense,
even offense isn't all gonna be onpoints. So I think after all

(31:55):
of that, I think I'm justglad that we started off this season with
what they with they win. Canyou take us to the headspace a little
bit of you know, you startedthe match. You're playing from the back
as opposed to in the midfield hereon Sunday, So what was that like
and being able to move through thosedifferent positions throughout the match? You know

(32:16):
what, It's nothing new to me, to be honest with you. I've
played in the back plenty of times, so I'm comfortable with it. You
know, I think in the positionthat I'm playing in, you know where
I played in this past season.I'm sorry this last game. You know,
I'm that defender that's allowed to pushup a little more in attack and
and be able to play both sidesof the ball, you know, having

(32:37):
Pinot and Mitchell, you know,B B R anchors in the back.
You know, we're allowed to pushup a little more. So yeah,
you know, I do sit alittle deeper, but I thankfully Phil and
you know, the staff gives methe luxury and the the trust to be
able to push up and also youknow, but other than that, I'm

(33:00):
okay with it. I'm uncomfortable.And you know, it's almost like playing
in that defensive position right where Igot to be the first guy to push
up and hop on my my thetwo guys in front of me, and
I also got to be the firstguy back to be able to hop the
two guys in the back. SoI'm okay with it. I'm fine with
it. We'll get you back intothe midfield soon enough, Lego, feel

(33:24):
better, Pee, we'll feel betternext thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
hopefully sooner than later. You know, not just for me, but
for the guys. You know,get to help the team, get a
full team out of the field moreimportant. So you brought up a couple
of things in your opening comment,but just thinking about your facing Tacoma again
this weekend on their home turf thistime, so uh, you know,

(33:45):
with yesterday a gym day, todaya recovery day, you're gonna be hard
at training the next couple of days. What did you leave the match kind
of hoping that the coaches will beasking you guys to work on over the
next two days. What would youlike to see the team work on the
next couple of days. To behonest with you, is the defensive portion

(34:05):
of it. I felt at timeswe got stretched out a little bit.
I felt like at times we werenot able to weather the storm. The
storm started too much. You know, we were defending, defending, defending,
they'd get a shot off, we'dget the ball. We tried to
play out of it, and weweren't able to so they would regain possession
right away, and we were stuck, stuck on the field for a good

(34:28):
amount of time, you know,longer than usual. So I feel like
we should hopefully work on being ableto break out of pressure from the back
and and then keeping possession of theball, you know, and and wather
in the storm a little more.And that comes along with like I said,
you know, keeping keeping possession ofthe ball, and and and and
and being able to play out ofthe back so that we can try and

(34:50):
rest a little bit by going forwardand then keeping the ball and making them
more defensively, and it was agreat start to the season for for the
team, but a great start forthe season for Brandon. The scut on
Sunday, if you talk about yourteammates performance a little bits, yeah,
yeah, yeah, you know,I think Brandon's Brandon. I think we
all expect them every game to bescoring goals, be making assists, looking

(35:13):
flashy and taking a guy or twoon. You know. I think that's
the norm out of him, youknow, but I don't expect anything less
from him either. You know,Escotto is always going to be the type
of player who who one way oranother is going to make a difference.
And offensively he's he's he's a greatplayer. You know. You can't deny

(35:34):
that. You know. I thinksomeone that says otherwise is not watching the
same game I'm watching. But youknow, Escoto had a great game.
I think he I'm glad he hehe extended his contract and and he's on
board with us for the next fewyears. One of the things we talked
about while we were going through thehighlight package Felipe was, uh, something

(35:54):
I always kind of worry about alittle bit for new players, which which
is how do they integrate onto ateam that has so many guys with a
high usage rate, so many guyswho are used to getting the ball,
whether it's in a powerplay situation,a free kick situation, et cetera.
We have seen you have seen greatplayers come to San Diego and really struggle

(36:16):
to integrate and then maybe not getgoing early, and then you start to
press over that, well, ohdo I belong am I? In early
Gabriel Coasta needed to be on thefloor for like twenty seconds and the ball
was in the net and it wasone nothing, and it's like, okay,
we can take that, throw itaway. We don't have to worry
about that at all. How happyare you to see how quickly he snaps

(36:39):
right in. It's a good thing, you know, especially a player of
his caliber. You know, likelike you should say yourself, you know
what happens to where you bring aplayer from a different team and it takes
them a little longer to gel orget comfortable with it. But the type
of player that that coast I is, you know, it just flows.
You know, he looks notnch alot of times, and it's just because

(37:04):
it flows for him, you know, he's such he's such a smart player,
very good on the ball, canshield the ball, can feed you
the ball, can shoot the ball, and you know, it's it's it's
great. I think More importantly,he just feels comfortable around us. And
at the end of the day,it's just, you know, he's playing
his game. He's coming on board, yeah, on a very very good

(37:25):
team. And I feel like alot of the guys, you know,
welcome him with open arms, notjust us, you know, the staff
in general. And it starts atpractice, you know, making him feel
wanted, waiting, making him feelyou know, you know, we want
him here, and and getting themcomfortable more than anything I practice, you
know, getting him the ball.So he starts getting used to us,

(37:46):
and we start getting used to him. You know. It's not always easy
to bring a guy on board,and we we got to know his tendencies
and he's got to know ours,you know, and and that comes with
practice. But he's a natural.I think he's a natural and and and
that's why it looks like he justit's just he just fit in like a
glove man. Speaking of naturals,right. Five goals from the forwards on

(38:08):
Sunday hat trick from Childs, twogoals from Morgan. How important is it
going to be to get both ofthose guys firing all cylinders all season long?
Oh, it's very important. Youknow. Having those two guys on
fire in the same game is itis crucial. You know, it can

(38:28):
happen to where one guy might beoff and and the other guy might step
up, which is great for us. But having both these guys score goals
and their shifts is great. Youknow, it helps us out, gets
their confidence up, you know,I mean not like they need need it
because they know what they're capable of. We know, we know what they're
capable of as well. So Ithink they're the type of players who who

(38:50):
realize, you know, they mightnot if for someone reason they're not having
if they're off a little bit there, one way or another, is still
going to make a difference, whetherit's working hard defense or you know,
making an assist. But getting thoseguys on the board early in the season
is great. You know, it'sjust gonna how do I say, It's

(39:12):
just gonna basically plant what we gotmoving forward and hopefully things keep looking like
that for them and us in general. Yeah, that's That's what we called
the show today, getting on thegood foot, because when you get on
that good foot, now you feelgood. You know, just like when
you're on the dance floor. Youget on that good foot. Now you're
in rhythm, Now you're in time, Now you're doing the salsa. You
know, now you're feeling it.And the soccers were feeling pretty good on

(39:36):
Sunday. Just a couple more questionsfor Phillip Big Gonzalez here today. You
know, Philipe I put you ina very similar category to the guy I'm
about to ask you about, whichis Brian Farber. A player who brings
hustle, who brings heart, whobrings intelligence, soccer intelligence, indoor soccer
intelligence to the floor, a competitivefire to win all the time. Uh,

(39:57):
somebody who's not always one hundred percentcount it on like a child's you
know, to always pot the goals, but pots big goals in big spots.
The team said, for well toBrian Farber. I thought it was
a neat touch by Paul Savage tohave one of his old banner posters up
in the locker room. So whenyou guys walked in, that's what you
saw. Uh, what was it? Like inside the room saying goodbye to

(40:22):
Farbes. Oh bittersweet. You know, I think for the guys I have
played along side of him for youknow, guys like zetto Red Though,
guys like Childs, guys like youknow, Bucket over List, you know,
they've played them for such a longtime, and I think they know
the type of player and and thatgreat tenacity that he brings to the team,

(40:44):
you know. More point of hisathleticism is insane, you know.
But then that leadership that he bringshas always been that type of player where
you know, he's he's gonna putthe team in front before he puts himself,
you know. And that's the typeof play that he's always been,
you know, the guy that walkup and say, you know, I'm
going to get this gold or I'mgoing to go make that slide tackle or

(41:06):
you know, whatever it takes toget the win. Farber has always been
that player, you know. AndI said, I've I mean I met
the guy when I was like seventeen, to be honest with you, and
he hasn't no, really, hehasn't changed one bit. And like I
said, I saw this guy playinglike Jesus, this guy is insanely quick.

(41:27):
Like it was, it was insane. And you look at him now
and doesn't skip a beat man.He's the first guy running. He's a
when we got to do six sports, he's the first. He's the guy
in the front. Believe it ornot, he is insane. But it
was bittersweet, you know, andhaving him in the locker room, having
his leadership, having his knowledge,you know, we're we're we're definitely gonna

(41:49):
miss him and all that comes withhim. But you know, if you
ask me, you know, Iwas excited to to be able to share
the field with with someone like likelike Farber who brought so much to you
know, the team, the organizationin general. And so I'm happy.
I'm happy, Like I said that, I got to that I was able

(42:10):
to play on the same team asFarber. Yeah, I love that.
And I mean now getting the firstgame out of the way and looking forward
and head to Saturday at Tacoma.What are you expecting the Stars to adjust
when they welcome you to their hometown. Well, obviously the defensive portion of

(42:30):
it, right, they don't wantto go They don't want us to go
out there and have them concede anothereleven goals, you know, especially being
at home. I think Tacoma isalways going to be the type of team
where me personally, I feel likethey can be a hit or miss.
Man. They have these games wherethey are insanely great, and then sometimes

(42:51):
they can have games where they don'tplay to their full potential, you know,
and that's just unfortunately that's sometimes partof the game. But when they
play at home, if we ifwe let them uh play and and and
and get their their uh what's theword get there? Uh, you know,
be motivated in one sense, it'sgonna be hard. You know.

(43:12):
I think whatever team plays at homeis it's always got that little advantage.
So I feel like they're gonna they'regonna work on their defensive side of it,
making sure that they buckle down defensively, whether it's you know, bunkering
down in the back or being ableto pressure us and just make it doing
a better job at it. Ihonestly feel like that's that's probably one one

(43:35):
thing that they're definitely gonna look into. Uh maybe watch film and and see
what they can do too to fixthat. Well, Hey, maybe you
can watch film too. Oh yeah, absolutely believe it. Or not already,
did I believe it? Yeah,I always know when the club watches
film because I'll get these texts.Like yesterday I got a text so where

(44:00):
in the middle of recording a differentshow from Boris on a ball that that
whistled off post and I said,oh, it beat Boris but not the
post, and he goes, no, I touched it, Craig, I
said it, I gotta touch onit, because anything I say, I
mean, you guys are gonna catchme on anything. Yeah, he just
just a little bit off. SoI know, I know you guys watch

(44:21):
you watch it. I'm just kidding. I'm just it's like, hey,
maybe Tacoma can crank it down soyou only score six and then you guys
also fix your issue and you onlygive up two. And yeah, you
know, I think a big portionof a big, a big part of
our team is is you know,we we say we we try not to
conceive more than four goals. Youknow, when we received we were at
four and then we received those lasttwo. It was like, ah,

(44:44):
you know, I wasn't happy aboutit, to be honest with you,
but you know, we we dowe do communicat and say, you know,
we want to try and conceive nomore than four. We can keep
the any team under four, we'regonna win, just because I know we
got the firepower to be able togo ahead and put away five, six,
seven, eight goals and any givennight, you know, and like

(45:06):
we are not making sure that defensivelywe work hard, things are going to
work out our way and the goalsare going to come eventually. Felipe,
great stuff is always my friend.You've always been generous to the show.
You're a great teammate in every senseof the word. Thanks so much,
Good health, good luck, andwe'll see you out on the floor on
it at Tacoma on Saturday. Absolutely, Thank you, gentlemen, Thank you

(45:29):
both having me once again, andhope you guys have a good night.
Thank you. I'm gonna appreciate it. Felipe Gonzalez outstanding as always, great
stuff and you know, always areally heady perspective on the game as well.
And he's right, Tacoma's going tohave to clamp it down defensively,
you know. The issue when youreally and we're not into the soccers Tacoma

(45:51):
preview that that's coming up momentarily.But I just don't think Tacoma has the
defenders is physically to stay with thecombination of the strength and skill you get
up front and all the slitheriness inthe midfield. I think Takoma's way to
beat us is for us to havea bad game and then for Nick to

(46:14):
have a great game, like oneof those five point games, and for
Mike Romos to have a big game, and for Correa to have a game,
and for Spur to have a gamelike you know. To me,
it's more of like the NBA thingabout role players play better at home and
your stars are always going to showup in the road. But you know,
Nick showed up, He had agoal, he had an assist,
He kind of did Nick things.But who else showed up for the Stars

(46:37):
to put a big pressure on SanDiego? Canale was good. Cannelli got
you know, one goal in therun of it. He got one goal
late. So they're gonna need alot more of that, you know,
Juice cos right, He's gonna breakloose at some point. But that's what
to me, like, Yes,they're gonna try and clamp down on defense.

(46:59):
I just don't know they have thehorses to do it. Tony,
Yeah, no, and again,once that midfield is solidified for the soccers
and they start getting that, youknow, real game time minutes, even
if it's one game, that's gonnago ahead and be exponential for how much
they're going to grow here against thenext game. And much like you said,
like Tacoma's gonna rewatching film, wellso have the soccers, and the
soccers know exactly what they need toaddress. And I mean that philosophy right

(47:22):
there of any team scoring more thanfour is not good news. Let's keep
them under is something that is possiblefor the soccers. That's a realistic thing
to say each and every match,and it can it can be done.
But again, if it's Tacoma ona winning end, it had to be
a soccers masterclass in in in youknow, just bad bad soccers play,

(47:46):
I guess, because again that's justfundamentally who the soccers are. They're just
that team that is buttoned up.They get stuff done and if they don't,
well you better take advantage and takeyour shot when you have a chance,
because there's not going to be anotherchance. I think you're muted,
Craig. I did it again becauseI blew my nose. I didn't want

(48:07):
you to hear me, plum.I think so with that win, the
soccers are now thirty and four againstTacoma. But I think it's really emblematic
of the organization how seriously they takeeach of these matches that that's how you
get to thirty and fours each eachand every time saying we respect this opponent,
they have an opportunity to beat us. We need you know, they're

(48:29):
going to play us close a lot, and that's the thing to thirty to
four. But match flow, youknow, probably eighteen to twenty two of
those thirty four results were close.We're nip and talk, we're ranked there,
but San Diego has that ability topush it through at the end.
We'll talk a little bit more aboutthe soccers and stars at the end of

(48:50):
the show, which isn't too faraway by the way. We're on the
back end now and we're into MASLnews, So let's talk some MASL news
starting with a match. And wewere kind of chatting about it in the
chat while you were frozen earlier,Tony, but like Susan was saying,
you know, I want to gowatch the Monterey Dallas, Uh, you
know, replay back and I'm kindof like, I don't know if I

(49:15):
do. Games like that are usuallyreally ugly and kind of you know,
it's like watching a beating at apetting zoo. It's like, you know,
it's not really entertaining in a ina general sense, it seems it
seems improper and untoward. So youknow, to the analogy, Yeah,
no, it's a you know,don't look there. You really don't want

(49:36):
to look that way. And Imean we discussed that we were both our
jaws were a gape when we sawthat score line, and and I mean
it's something that you don't see insports where a score is counted by one
h such such numbers, and Imean it's stark, like, oh my

(49:57):
goodness, is that a typo?I know, the it didn't align on
the box scores on top because they'renot meant to have a two and a
two, which are very wide numerals. So it was just you know,
offset that was that interesting. Butlook at that, I mean three six,
six seven. Obviously after an earlyfield goal, the field goal kicker

(50:20):
got off off target on his extrapoints. In the second and third quarter,
they got back to fifty. Yeah, right, exactly. Safety in
a field goal, or maybe theywere playing Canadian rules safety in two rouges.
I don't know. What I knowis that that is absolutely brutal.
And you know, we in ourseason preview, you know, our ridiculous

(50:43):
nonsensical and unnecessary predictions segment. Youknow, I said, I think Monterey's
coming out of the East. NowI'm starting to think, and I was
talking to Sean Bowers at the officeabout this. I kind of feel like
this might be. And who knows, we're early in, but I feel
like this might be the type ofseason that we have, which is watching

(51:05):
an enemy from Afar and be likethey're gonna be watching us, and we're
gonna be watching them, and they'regonna be piling up wins and we're gonna
be piling up wins. And it'sprobably in the middle of the season gonna
be something like you know, twelveand Oho eleven and one kind of thing
where the soccers are never gonna haveno matter what kind of lead they get

(51:25):
off to in the division, they'renever gonna have a chance to just kind
of put on the brakes and go, oh, we'll take it easy this
week. We'll rest a bunch ofguys, etc. Because Monterey is gonna
push them all year long. Lastyear, the Soccers finished five games clear
of the field. I do notthink they're gonna finish five games clear of
the field this year. Maybe Montereywill be a completely different team in the

(51:47):
United States. You know, they'vegot their first test coming up this weekend
when they go to Milwaukee, sowe'll see. I know, for example,
Big Rojo won't be traveling up there. We know that. But dang
nine twenty two five first two games. That's a statement. Yeah, And

(52:07):
I don't want to be hearing anythingwhen the soccer is playing here early on
against the sidekicks, if they don'tscore twenty two goals, I don't want
to hear anybody talking, oh wow, wow, they couldn't get twenty two
passed? This doub No, it'sjust situational. Soccer situations are situational,
and something happened over there, AndI mean, I would hope at least,

(52:28):
you know, for the sake ofthe fans of the Dallas Sidekicks.
It's it's not as demoralizing as itmay seem from AFAR. But kudos to
Monterey. You know, it's it'sit's not easy, scoring twenty two goals
in anything. And I know theirnew head coach, Eddie. I think
it's Piskerich. He was in thein the Dallas booth as an analyst the

(52:50):
last few years. Dallas did alot of preseason Instagram posts of guys beach
runs and carrying sandbag uphills and weavingthrough posts in the sand. Maybe soccer
balls, maybe maybe they should havemaybe instead of lifting sandbags. Yeah,
Evan Drago was just training with withnothing but soccer balls and in those same

(53:15):
state of the art facilities. Becausegeez geez. Also, Eddie makes a
good point. Monterey is now onat Arena Boregos. They're playing at Chihuahua
sized field. They used to playat Arena Monterrey, which was one of
the bigger fields regulation. You know, it is a field just like the

(53:36):
field you saw at the Sports Arena, but now it's like, I believe,
it's one hundred and sixty five feetfrom one goal to the next at
Arena Boregos. So it's save onthe defensive end, throw the ball,
you know, keepers throwing the ballfor assists, keepers throwing the ball to
the foot of the target forward.It's a different game. You know,
small field indoor is a different game. And we've got three fields of it

(54:00):
now with Baltimore, Chihuahua and Monterey, so you know, it is what
it is in that sense. Youknow, small fields are kind of normal
to find in Mexico. It definitelychanges the game. Yeah, absolutely,
it's just the pacing of it.The rebounds are faster, everything just a
little bit more needs to be alittle bit more tightened up because you know,

(54:21):
just that small quarters play for thesoccers who like to pass the ball
around isn't necessarily that available to thembecause there's such a high press. And
I mean I have nightmares of nowthe soccer is playing in those types of
venues and hopefully their clockworks. Hopefullythey got that down at least over in
Monterey. You had to remind meabout the clock. Sorry, I mean,

(54:45):
it's just I didn't believe you,Not that I didn't believe you,
like I've seen it, but they'renot going to do it such high stakes,
there's no way, and what it'shappening. They're going to do it
in front of it, in frontof everybod Okay, and it worked.
Okay, so sounds great. Iguess it's part of the challenge, man,

(55:07):
It's part of the challenge. Youknow, if we had nothing difficult
or challenging in the season, itwouldn't be that fun. Yeah, these
are the challenges we shall face.All right, Let's get to the other
big story that came out yesterday.Empire Strikers, team that's other than Dallas,

(55:28):
off to the worst start in them ASL this year, got their
doors blown off twice south of theborder. Really taking two losses out of
that trip was expected for Empire,it's expected for most teams in the MSL.
So I'm not gonna overpile on theStrikers for those two results. But
they lost them both handily. Theydidn't look good. They got one goal

(55:49):
and they got two goals. Itwas pretty dire. They're playing on the
road again this weekend in Saint Louis, then they're coming home and playing Baltimore,
and then they're playing US, soa chance for Empire to get off
to a really, really bad start. And then yesterday, I think you
have to say a stunning announcement,Tony Marco Fabian And this is a player

(56:13):
that if you are a fan ofthe outdoor game, if you're a fan
of national teams, if you're afan of l TRY, you probably know
the name Marco Fabian Tony, Yeah, I know it's It's one of those
where I woke up they posted itat six am and I saw my telephone
like what is going on here?Like I know that face, I know
that name, I know that team, what's what? And then it just

(56:37):
kind of all clicked and I reachedout to you and I was like,
hey, this is this is gonnasell some jerseys for sure. And that's
that's the one thing that will bebeneficial for the league, beneficial for strikers
is overall sales will go up forMarco Fabian in jerseys because, let me
tell you, he's one of themost popular Mexican players. In the last
couple of years, I was sharingwith some of the people that needed context

(56:59):
some of his highlights and you know, going back, you know to the
day he made himself a legend wasa match with Chivas where he was playing
one of the most popular Mexican teamsin the outdoor game against Barcelona and it
was Barcelona's a team Michico. Fabianscrolled scored a world ye. He has
a heck of a shot from outsidethe box and he scored a bicycle kick

(57:22):
to beat Barcelona. Yeah, it'sa friendly and everything, but that really
put him on the map on theon the Mexican side, on the Mexican
national team side. You know,again a very good player where you know,
he had flashes but never really reachedhis potential a little bit too late.
He traveled over to Germany and playedin Einstrach Frankfurt, where he did

(57:42):
win a Copa Alemana, a Germancup. And you know, it's a
name, it's it's a very impressivename. It's a very impressive signing.
I don't know who had him onthe radar, who didn't have him on
the radar, if somebody knows somebody, But I mean, on paper,
it's a positive signing. But II do have to agree with the cold
water that you just kind of laidon me after I sent you the screenshot

(58:06):
of the most important aspect of thesigning. And he played the indoor game
correct. And if there's one thingwe've learned since the great experiment of ld
NSD, it's that you can bea world class outdoor player come to the
indoor game and truly struggle, liketruly struggle. Heady Bear asks, but

(58:31):
does he have a visa? Ihave a feeling a man of Bobby On's
stature is set. Yeah, he'she's goods. He played for Philadelphia Union,
you know, like he's got avisa. Thank goodness, Thank goodness.
But it might be overly reductive tosay this, but the soccers signed

(58:57):
the best player on the national teamand it wasn't. He wasn't the best
player in the MSL. You know, he wasn't. And yes, Landon
was. You know, he wasn'tthe best player on the USMNT at the
moment we signed him. But hewas literally the all time leading scorer for
the United States and uh, youknow, sixteen points in eight games.

(59:19):
Never going to shake a stick atit. He was good as a soccer.
He was very good as a soccer. He very much helped the power
play for the San Diego Soccers.But he wasn't what some thought when we
signed him, which was that hewould be an automatic hat trick. He
would be a man among boys.He would show how low the class was
of m ASL because he would justcut through it like a knife through butter

(59:40):
just scoring goal, goal, goal, goal, goal. No, that
didn't happen. And when Jermaine Jonescame to the indoor game, that didn't
happen. And last year when BlasPerez and Roman Torres came to the game
and people were like, oh,look at that. You know Blas Perez
scores goals. Yeah, you know, he scored some goals. Jermaine I
don't scored some goals in the league. None of these players elevated their team

(01:00:06):
to great heights. So when Isee a signing like this, I want
to make this one hundred percent Clayer. I am in favor of signings like
this for THEMSL. I'd love tosee this all over the place. I'd
love to see robust investigation of whichplayers are prepared to take that next step
down, so to speak, goingfrom their full career life to their half

(01:00:28):
life to their quarter life, youknow, and like, hey, I
could run in the indoor game fora couple of years. That'd be great.
If Fabian comes in and he's impactfuland he organizes the team and he
brings them an edge, and hegives them a shot and he is a
handful on the floor and you can'tguard him, you know, et cetera,
et cetera. That'll be amazing,that'll be amazing, And I'm gonna

(01:00:52):
wait and see. Yeah, it'sa wait and see situation. And what's
interesting, and what I think isthat the foot saw the indoor game is
a little bit more popular in Mexico, so there might be some background there
to where you know, he's ableto really do that. His best attributes
are are his dribbling and his shots. He has lethal with with that right

(01:01:14):
foot of his and again it's veryreminiscent of Blasped. His blastpetes scores fantastic
goals from long range and and youdon't really see those in indoor because you
do have that dicky taka really closequarters type of type of play that's needed
and necessary to be successful. That'sthe biggest thing. Outdoor players when they
come indoors lose their space. Theylose the space that they've operated with their

(01:01:37):
entire lives, never mind their wholecareers. And like you said, a
guy like Fabian might have some footballrapido, you know, in his in
his years growing up, in hisyouth, et cetera. But most players,
outdoor players, they have to befit they have to run that gigantic
field. They have to. Butwhen they get the ball, they've got

(01:01:57):
time. They've got time to bringit down. Look at the defense,
Now take a touch, you know, and that time ain't there indoors,
so it's a completed and by theway, walls, yes, there's no
throwall, no, none of that. Yeah. Yeah. So defense is
usually almost impossible for an outdoor playerbecause they man mark and then oh he

(01:02:20):
passed it off the wall. Normally, if the guy kicks it over there,
it's out of bounce, you know. Instead it's bouncing behind me and
he's running around me, and nowI got to go get him. So
those are the kind of things I'mgoing to look for. But bully for
Empire, for Paul right, PaulDoherty. I hope it works out.
I hope he lifts the team.I hope he brings fans to the stands.
I hope he sells jerseys. Ihope he impacts the league on the

(01:02:44):
field, you know, because Idon't want to. I don't want to
see Empire go one in twenty threethis year, or them in Dallas be
two just complete knock arounds that wintwo games between them all year. I'd
much rather see a team be fightingfor it. You know, I'm not
picking them to make the playoffs,but I'd like to see them fight for

(01:03:04):
it, and hopefully Fabian will dothat. So let's find out. They
said that the fifteenth would probably behis first match, which would be a
home match, so that would leavehim in line unless he's only going to
play home games, to come andsee us on Sunday the seventeenth, on
our next home match. And thelast thing to note here is that the

(01:03:28):
it was weird, but the Strikersincluded in very high up in the press
release that as part of a twoyear contract that Marco Fabian signs, at
the end of the contract, hehas the right to own and operate a
major arena Soccer League franchise. NowI don't know what that means. That

(01:03:51):
they've a back at yeah, Like, I mean, what does it mean
though? Which franchise a new franchise? Does he get to pick one?
Is it Empire? Jeff BURROWM Hey, well, I'm gonna employ you for
two years and then you're gonna employme. After you run the club,
you can hire me as team president. I honestly, I don't know,

(01:04:14):
and and and it could be eyewash. You know, we're still waiting for
Ronaldinho's team to show up in LasVegas. So you know, sometimes things
are said and the difference between saidand done can be a large golf.
But I'm curious, I mean,I'm curious. But Marco Fabia doesn't know
anything about the n ASL. He'sgonna own a team, he's never been

(01:04:35):
here. Let him go up,Let him go kick around corner sport Arena
once or twice at least, lethis see what he's in for here.
It's intriguing, It's definitely gonna besomething to witness. Has to see how
this develops, right and ever andagain, I saw a lot of clouds
around. Oh this is the biggestsigning in the league history. I don't

(01:04:59):
believe that be true. The bitwho said that Philly was that you Philly?
Was that you Doc? I willnot let that sad. I'm so
sorry. Landon freaking Donovan. Okay, Oh yeah, yeah, we're good
there, Okay, with this hangingback here, it was Landon, all

(01:05:23):
right, Yeah, it was Landed. His other team is Mexico, You
guys should have done. His otherteam is the sockers just literally, oh
my gosh. All right. Nextup, when we did our season predictions,
the very first version I had foryou in the East had Baltimore in

(01:05:45):
last place, and then I waslike, I can't do that, and
I think I shuffled them up tofifth. Maybe I was right. The
first time Baltimore opened up their seasonover the weekend, no William Vinzella missing.
I belie four or five of theircore players. A cryptic statement released

(01:06:06):
by on Blast social media by whatwas listed as their lawyer that the Blast
lawyer issued a statement through social mediakind of implicating William Vinzella in whatever had
because you know, look, it'son the other side of the country.

(01:06:27):
I'm not trying to pretend like Iunderstand what's happened. But there was a
major legal dispute between ed Hale andhis team's general manager and accusations of embezzlement
and fraud, and I mean,it's a real serious thing. And the
lawyer's statement indicated that they're either investigatingwhether William was part of it or they

(01:06:48):
were kind of throwing them under thebus as being part of it. It's
it's not for me to say.I felt like it. It seemed really
unfair to William Vinzella. He certainlydoesn't have a chance to answer back on
any of this, but he's notplaying. Baltimore was playing. They had

(01:07:10):
a pretty small crowd. They're intheir tiny little arena on the basketball court
at Towson University. They took afour to two lead over Texas Outlaws,
and then Texas ran the show man. Texas put six in a row down
on him, ran away to hide. Baltimore got something late to make it
look a little bit better, butnine to five the final score Mendes five
point game. They didn't even havePoyle Cortes. Texas started a keeper,

(01:07:36):
that dude. They took a pennyand they like scribbled a number on it
with a sharp beat. It wasIt was bad. It was super semi
pro. It was super chinky.But nonetheless, that's how Baltimore lost.
I mean they lost. They lostbad. They looked bad. They served

(01:07:57):
up nine at home to a teamthat's not used to playing small field and
I long season ago, twenty threematches to go, but that was a
really bad way to start. Yeah, I mean it's not twenty two goals
conceded, but either way, it'sstill not necessarily good off off the field.
On the field just kind of troubledas does not spell for success in

(01:08:18):
the long term, especially with itbeing the beginning of the season as it
is right now. And on theflip side, I think something that you
know, when we interviewed Tattoo lastseason, he said, you know,
it's my first year. We're noteven close. You know, he was
very honest. He's always very honest. He said, I'm not even close.
But we've got some young players.We're starting to learn how to play

(01:08:40):
the game. And now in futureyears we can start adding the players who
know and who have the experience totake our team to the next level.
Well, I think they made somereally smart signings this year that can help
take them to the next level.And you know, first up on that
list for me is Vinnie Dantas.You know, so Uzi Tayu. Now,

(01:09:02):
are these guys at the height oftheir career, They're not, you
know, are they players that wouldnecessarily I mean, I think Vinnie Dantas
would make the Sockers, but youknow, I mean his best years are
behind him. But these are veteransthat have a physicality. Uzi is a
big guy. Vinnie Dantes is areally big guy and a forceful guy.

(01:09:25):
And one thing about Texas last yearis that they had a lot of little
guys, you know, David Ortiz, Sebastian Mendez, even a geary in
the back. They didn't have alot of size, they didn't have a
lot of physicality. So they've addeda little bit of grit. They've added
a little bit of bite to thelineup, and I think having those physical
players freeze up space for Ortiz andMendez and Louise Morales to be the offensive

(01:09:48):
creators that they can be getting ninegoals. You know, I really look
at Texas now as being the thirdteam in the West. I think it's
US, It's Chihuahua, and Ithink it's Texas. Yeah, and those
lines are getting getting drawn, especiallywith the way that some of these teams
are playing, where it's incredibly impressivethe way that they've been able to be

(01:10:09):
so cohesive and bring that chemistry forwardand you know, all the same wavelength
as some of the other teams havereally shown their their belly early and just
turned over and just you know,there's nothing that can be done there.
And I mean just for the healthof the league. Hopefully that does turn
around in general. But I mean, I think, you know, go
with your gut next time, Craig, I think you're you're on You're on

(01:10:30):
something. I was on something,but was I on the right tip?
I don't know. Uh the otherscores, Utica outlasted Harrisburg seven to five.
I watched. It was a prettyentertaining match. I don't know what
to take from it because we're goingto need time to know is Harrisburg bad
and Utica play down to them oris Harrisburg improved? I don't know.
Kansas City two and oh, theybeat up on Saint Louis seven to two.

(01:10:51):
Saint Louis doesn't look great so far. They've scored three goals in two
games, so that's that's rough.If they're going to be putting up outdoor
type offensive totals, they're going tobe in a lot of trouble this season.
And those were the scores. KansasCity looks very good. I think
it's Monterey Kansas City in the east. Milwaukee's got to show me that they

(01:11:15):
have the ability to step into theconversation, which leads us to the schedule,
because we'll get some clarity with thisweek's matches, Tony. It starts
Thursday night with Texas going to CornerSport Arena to take on Chihua. Okay,
so that's a fun one. That'sthree v two in the West right
there. Let's see what it isfor Texas and Chiuaba. Let's see how
that one plays out. Then aswe get into the weekend Saturday, very

(01:11:40):
very busy games slate of games.UCFC at Baltimore. So it's one thing
for Baltimore to drop the home opener. Do they drop two in a row
in division at home? And ifthey do, who's on the team.
We're confused. Empire at Saint Louisand okay, this is the resistible force
against the movable object, which oneof these teams off to a very bad

(01:12:03):
and two start, is going tofind their way to at least two points
in the match. Important for Empirebecause if Empire drops towing three there,
lookout. Then Monterey at Milwaukee,that's your match to watch this week in
the m A s L. That'sthe match of the week in the m
A SL. Texas at Chiuahua,Monterey at Milwaukee. Those are the two

(01:12:25):
but especially Monterey at Milwaukee. Onceyou get the flash north of the border,
across the fronter era, who's ableto travel, who who's visa up,
who is able to make the move? Who is stuck south of the
border. Those are the questions we'regoing to ask because I mean, you
know, Henaro Castillo seven assist game, that's ridiculous. What do you take

(01:12:50):
from it? I don't even knowwhat you take from I have no idea
what to take from it. So, yeah, we're gonna watch. We're
gonna see Kansas City gets there forroadmatch of the year, They're at Harrisburg.
Kansas City was terrible on the roadlast year, in the last couple
of years. So while we're readyto anoint them after two home wins,
I'd like to see them go toHarrisburg and put up a multi goal win

(01:13:13):
before I'm like, okay, theyare completely legit. And then Texas at
Dallas. Dallas, Oh, Dallas, show us something in that match.
For yeah, not for us,but yeah, yeah, all right.
Lastly to Soccer's News. We kindof talked through the injury situation for the

(01:13:36):
club a little bit earlier. Oh, Jonas Jcob, We're not sleeping on
the comments. We're not sleeping onthe comments. They've either got them one
or two in the East right now. I think they're a very very good
team. I'm just noting they havebeen really bad on the road in past
years, like really bad. Soif they're really bad and they struggle in

(01:13:58):
Harrisburg, if they go to overtimeand Harrisburg, I'm gonna I'm gonna raise
my eyebrow. If they kill him, beat them six to two, you
know, then just like that verygood, very good spuck. If they
beat them very you know, handily, then they're gonna take a step up
in my mental rankings. Okay,so we talked a lot with Felipe about

(01:14:19):
the match. We we talked aboutthe injury situation. You know, a
little bit of a little bit ofan issue in back. I'm going to
moving down the depth chart a littlebit in back, but you've still got
sort of and ruggles and pino.You know, you've probably got pee wee.
Maybe we see Maxwell Rodriguez this weekand that would be great to get

(01:14:42):
a look. Uh. It isTeddy Bear Toss Night for Tacoma. I
always think that's a fun thing andsomething the crowd gets into and when you're
the visiting team, the goal isto put the pressure on the home team
if you can shut them out thatfirst quarter and have everyone like I want

(01:15:03):
to throw my teddy and it's like, no, you can't. Know.
It really messes with the home team'smind, like if they're down to nothing
and they can't get the teddies tossed, it's it's it's a bad look and
it makes you that, Hey,I was with the Goals for three years.
I went one teddy toss, wegot shut out and they had to

(01:15:27):
do the concession teddy toss at thelast break of the third period, like,
well, I guess we're not goingto score, but I'd as well
just throw them now or else you'llhave to take them home. And it's
just the worst feeling in the worldbecause like everyone's like sad throwing the teddy,
so he was like, geez,I'm not so happy. So it's

(01:15:47):
a that's that's got to be thesoccer school. If nothing else, it's
too shut them down for that firstfifteen minutes and really gotta get the knife
in there where they're like, oh, oh, what are we gonna what
are we gonna score? So forme. I've just got keys for both
teams. For the soccers. Key, it's very simple. You got to

(01:16:10):
tighten up a little bit on defense, you know, I don't there's nothing
to say the second goal. Borisjust made a mistake. That's nothing.
He's a great keeper. He madea mistake. Who cares throw it away?
Uh? You know the back pass, the Charlie situation getting beat down
the floor by Cox, the counterattack where Keats and Perera were able to
go down the floor and rhythm together. Those are the types of things that

(01:16:30):
San Diego is going to be tryingto shut down because all of those things
were created by San Diego getting alittle ahead of themselves offensively, and that
allowed the Stars to get up thefloor. Uh. With with counter attacks
and with you know, broken plays. If the Soccers eliminate broken plays and
they force Nick Peerrera to make amazinghalf court moves and to come up with

(01:16:51):
spectacular passes and shots, you know, he'll get one, and he'll get
a and he'll get an as systemalong the way. But I don't think
he can create eight goals that way. I think for eight goals to be
scored for Tacoma, they have toget three or four on the counter.
They have to get three or fouroff of turnovers, off of mistakes.
So Soccer's key is simply reducing giveawaysthat lead to open counter attacks, take

(01:17:15):
away easy offense for Tacoma. ForTacoma it's a little bit more difficult.
It's you've got to find some defense. You got to find a way to
shut down the midfielders. You gotto find a way to get into the
chest of Charlie and Costa and Descotoand Lao. Because you can't just get
into one and shut down this team. You're gonna have to get into all

(01:17:38):
of them and try and slow thingsdown offensively. For San Diego, they're
gonna have to get physical, andI think they're gonna have to take three
or four penalties. And listen,the soccer scored on their first one,
and then they didn't score in thelast two, and one of those they
had Farbaran and they were trying tofeed them the ball. You know,

(01:17:59):
I've little pass. But nonetheless,as you've heard me say many times,
score on half of your power plays, and teams lose the ability to be
physical with you, they can nolonger do it. So I believe that'll
be ta Coma's strategy is to geta little grittier, get a little bit
more stuck in, get some fouls, take a blue cart if you have

(01:18:20):
to, and try and frustrate andlimit what San Diego's doing. If you
give the soccer space, they're goingto put another ten or eleven up on
the board. So that's how Isee this one. Tony soccers have had
a lot of success at a SessoShow war Center over the last few years.
They've had some, i gotta say, reasonably comfortable games. They've even

(01:18:42):
had games where they've went down threenothing early and then surged and won by
three or four goals by the endof the match. So it's been a
while since Tacoma's given us a reallyreally good run for it up there.
There's been a few over the years, but I'll be looking forward to watching
this one today seven oh five righthere on Twitch. Yeah. Absolutely so.

(01:19:02):
Again, those keys are are definitelyto watch. And again it's it's
part of the nature of this league. I know. It's what's so beautiful.
Those adjustments will be seen from weekendweek out, and and it's it's
rare sometimes where you see that playout from really one week to the second
week in such a way. Anduh, I like that idea, Craig,
some sad teddy beard tosses. Ireally dig that. The sad teddy

(01:19:27):
toss is just if you're on theother side of it, it's chef's kiss.
It's beautiful, you see that,Like the TikTok crying girls tosses,
the tosses to teddy, it's it'sbeautiful. Uh. Next week back to
back matches for the Soccers. Theywill be at Dallas on Saturday. There

(01:19:47):
will be Home versus Empire on theseventeenth, so something to keep an eye
on. We'll have a very busyweek next week here on Soccers overtime.
Very last comment that I want toI want to make. Soccers online store
is now up with twenty twenty threetwenty four jerseys and the twenty twenty three
twenty four winter scarf. So thosethings which were only available at the merch

(01:20:11):
store on Sunday are now available worldwide. So if you are watching US wherever
East Coast, Midwest, you cango to sdsoccers dot com, click on
the shop link and you can buy. I heard our number one seller was
that white Jersey on Sunday. Man, it's frittur. It's our road kit,
but we wore it at home tokind of spur that and sure enough

(01:20:32):
number one seller on Sunday. Butyou can get the Home the Road.
You can get the Redder Green goalkeeperkit as well, all available sdsoccers dot
Com and I see in the chatas well. Some talk that there will
be a watch party at Fairplay unofficialunofficial watch party. Soccers will have some
official watch parties later this year.We could not get a venue locked in

(01:20:54):
for an official watch party this Saturday, however, seeing some confirmation in there
if you want to head down tofair Play, always a great place in
North Park to watch soccer, towatch sports. Uh, there'll be a
gathering and a little bit of awatch party there, so I will see.
Maybe I'll be able to swing by. I like to. I don't
like to watch the games at home, Tony. If I do, I

(01:21:15):
put it on my laptop in herein the back, because you know,
it's just I can't feel the familyvibe during the game vibes. It's a
different. Yeah, as much asyou love it, you can't bring work
home. It's it is what itis, and you know, it's already
a large part of it, andsome of the some of the things that
could be frustrating in this game isit's not conduced to a good time just

(01:21:35):
in general. So you know,hopefully it's not it's going to be conduced
to a great time for the result. But you know, that's I think
that's a smart, smart man's choiceright there. We'll see how it all
shakes out, and we'll talk itall about it right here on Soccer's Overtime
next week. All right, thatbrings an end to the show. As

(01:21:59):
always, tribute video outstanding. Areyou are top of There's no question about
it, and Tony your top ofclass. To my friend, where can
everyone find you? You can findme at Underscore Tony Sanchez, Underscore Tony

(01:22:20):
Sanchez, on the X Machine,and on Two Balls and a Mic Everything.
Two Balls of a MIC's the podcastthat I have and little Adventure that
I have. Adventure of a lifetimethere, Greg, Yeah, two hundred
and one episodes of Two Balls ina Mic. Our dear friend, Weston
Bray, ex of Loyal Now withthe Wavefront Office Supporters Liaison. You're in

(01:22:41):
studio guest on Monday night. Checkout that show on YouTube, or you
can subscribe and listen to the audioversion as well. You can find me
on Instagram at six or nine Sportsin Life. You can find me on
x at six or nine sports.I don't I'm not there a lot,
but you can find me on Instagram. Please follow me there until we speak
again. For Tony Sanchez and Felipigand Zales, I'm Craig Elston. Thanks

(01:23:03):
to you for getting to the endof Soccer's overtime. Please make sure to
follow our channel at twitch, likeand subscribe our video if you're watching on
YouTube, or give us the fivestar review on Apple Podcasts. However you've
been watching or listening, we thankyou for getting there. Until we talk
to you again next Tuesday. Solong and go soccer.